celebrations and training

I've experienced my first Indian birthday party. Today is Jayakumar's birthday. There are several key differences from a Western birthday. The first thing that struck me was that, traditionally, the birthday boy/girl is expected to give out sweets on his/her birthday instead of getting and getting and getting. It was a pretty neat concept. However, India has westernized a bit, and there is some gift giving.

All of the other labmates met secretly before midnight to plan our attack. We got some cake, sweets, and mango juice ready in a room downstairs before storming Jayakumar's room. We woke him up with a raucous (and the same version you are familiar with only with a lot more clapping involved) "Happy Birthday." Then, he was presented with a bouquet on a palm frond.

At the party proper, Jayakumar was asked to sing for us and to dance for us. He tried to make me do these things instead. After a beautiful Tamil song, we turned on, of all things, YouTube, for some Tamil music. Some people started dancing, and soon, I was pulled on to the dancefloor by my friends. I strutted my stuff, and everyone was surprised that a little white girl could dance. My friend Nikhil and I have decided to exchange dance moves tonight. I'm super excited.

In other news, I started my analytical chemistry training course today. I was a little nervous about not knowing the material, but most of it is a review of my organic chemistry business. So, no sweat. The inauguration of the training course was fraught with ceremony. I witnessed my first Indian prayer--it was so beautiful and song-like. Then, there were several speeches made by the important somebodies. We then lit a lamp to symbolize the training course beginning. The chief guest, the director, and the co-ordinator started the lighting, and I was honored when I was one of the students selected to light part of the lamp. How nice!